Huskies 84 ASU 71

I hesitantly called Dentmon our MVP a few weeks ago. I’m not hesitant anymore.

I think I was in tune w/ the Husky coaching staff on this one. Harden was averaging 22.5 points per contest and we only gave him 15 for the night. Harden is the key to beating ASU. That man-child can score at will if given the opportunity. My point of emphasis was to offer him the outside shot (20 feet out and beyond). We did that for the 1st half and continued for a spell in the 2nd half. Harden didn’t get any easy lanes to the basket and we limited his chances to rack up points by him not going to the free throw line.

Harden is a tough kid and can score at will if allowed. We didn’t let this kid get hot and to me that was the key to the victory. A split in the desert was GOOD. I am almost certain that most of us felt the ASU game was going to be the big game in the desert- including me. But the Arizona game was the trap game for us- just caught them at the wrong time. Oh well we’ll get after em’ on our floor when they come to visit.

Go Huskies! WOOF!!!

It was a great win for the Huskies, and an important one. If nothing else, it was good just to shut up the announcers that Fox assigned (OMG).

But in the last 10-12 minutes it felt at times like Cal all over again. I respect Coach Romar, but when you jump out to a nearly 20 point lead by playing your own game, it doesn’t make sense to go into the protect mode so early. If ASU had hit a few more shots down the stretch, it could have been Cal all over again.

On another positive note, how many have noticed that JD is hitting 3’s at a 45% rate, compared to Appleby’s 38.5% last year? With his increasing confidence, he may even pick up the rate and surpass Appleby’s season total.

Out big 4 are getting between 67-70% of the minutes a piece. I’d like to see MBA get some of Holiday and Gant’s minutes, but it’s good that Romar is giving those two some playing experience as well. I wouldn’t mind Turner getting a few of Overton’s minutes for the same reason, but we’ll see if that happens as the season goes on.

I think the rotation is just fine. MBA is a good low post player for us, but he is not versatile. We run people off the court and when you do that you have to have versatile players. Holiday is one of our go-to defensive stoppers along with Q. These guys need to be on the floor more the MBA. We’ve got good rebounders and scorers on the floor now. Not sure if I’d be willing to trade uneccessary offense for less defensive. production

Turner has come on lately and he looks good with the motion of the offense. But I like the ball pressure Overton applies and he fits in with a great 3 guard rotation between he, Thomas, and Dentmon. Point to be made: Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken